BOOK REVIEWS / Sociocultural Anthropology 839

century: chapter 3 considers the natural histories written by thephilosophe Comte de Buffon and the later romantic Alexandervon Humboldt, who trained his "physiognomic gaze" on theAndean landscape. Chapter 4 looks at French costumbristapaintings of Lima women. Chapter 5 focuses on cartes-de-visites photographic albums from the nineteenth century: Poolecompares these privately amassed collections of Andean"types" to early twentieth-century assemblages published byphysical anthropologists, who used the techniques and theoriesof Bertillon and Broca to catalogue Andean physiognomies inaccordance with the dictates of scientific racism.

Chapter 6 introduces a Peruvian perspective, that of ManuelAtanasio Fuentes, whose compendious 1866 book on Lima so-ciety—intended to redress the errors of European travelbooks—juxtaposes facts and figures about the city with photo-graphs and engravings of Lima's women. Fuentes, a conserva-tive, is followed by a self-proclaimed Bohemian, "tum-of-the-century Peruvian dandy, photographer and painter" JuanManuel Figueroa Aznar (p. 168). The concluding chapter ofPoole's book is illustrated with family photographs from Cuzco,taken in the early decades of this century.

Throughout the text, Poole returns again and again to two ofthe three terms of the title, vision and race, juxtaposing themsuggestively, provoking us to consider hidden connections be-tween popular and elite culture, art and science, Europe and theAndes. The language seems almost deliberately contradictory,one statement undercutting the next rather than sustaining a sin-gle coherent argument; the author's use of images, too, is contra-puntal ratherthan comparative or analytical.

Certain theoretical affinities, however, are distinct Poole,like other scholars, argues against equating Early Modem Euro-pean fascination with exotica and the late nineteenth century'sobsession with biological difference. Nevertheless, she findsthe "Andean image world"—in both its South American andEuropean manifestations—to have been a consistently oppres-sive place. The concluding chapter notes that images of Andeanpeople might be read either in a Foucauldian sense, as technolo-gies that discipline the viewer, "mold[ing] subjectivities in ac-cordance with a vision of modernity scripted and centered inEurope"(p. 213), or, following the lead of Paul Gilroy, as imagesthat partially escape from the oppressive discourses of race byvirtue of persistent discontinuities and excesses. This very ideo-logical slippage, Gilroy argues, is as integral to modernity as ra-cism itself. But for Poole, the Foucauldian reading is the mostcompelling; in fact, she finds little evidence that artists and pho-tographers, models and viewers ever challenged an aestheticthat was relentlessly Eurocentric and bourgeois. Nor is she per-suaded that particular images might ever be susceptible to multi-ple, subaltern, and even perverse readings. She holds this con-viction despite a tantalizing anecdote (recounted in herintroduction) in which an impoverished Peruvian friend offereda surprising analysis of why some photographs of poor peoplemake pleasurable viewing.

The wonderful illustrations in Deborah Poole's book invitemore complex readings than she provides. For example, theauthor argues that photographs of nonwhite women reducethem to bodies "available... for inscribing European fantasiesof power and possession" (p. 127). Indeed, she shows that thecollection of cartes-de-visites assembled by Dr. L.C.Thibon(the Bolivian consul in Brussels) "miniaturized, objectified and

distanced" urban working-class women, allowing the collectorto "pull the far-off... Andean people into the familiar sphere of'colonial other' " (p. 128). But what of the photograph of a Bo-livian woman reproduced, but not discussed, on page 30 ofPoole's text? The massive female body, richly clothed, confi-dently posed, and topped with a bowler hat—unmistakablesymbol of "chola" success—shows us a working-class, "mixed-race" woman of remarkable self-prepossession. Or so it seems.Without knowing more about the formal conventions thatframed each image, or the social conditions under which eachwas produced and circulated, neither Poole nor her readers canpresume to see what earlier viewers saw when they looked at the"Andean image world." •»

Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Per-estroika. Nancy Ries. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,1997.220 pp.

KATHERINE R. METZOIndiana University

In the last several years, we have seen the emergence of quitea substantial body of ethnographic literature on the former So-viet Union. Russian Talk is one of the most original currentanalyses of perestroika and the immediate post-Communist era-Nancy Ries sets out with a very basic question: "Why is Russianexperience so full of suffering and misfortune?" (p. 5). Her ap-proach to this question is to analyze cultural texts, specificallyeveryday conversations, and to interpret them in the context ofthe processes of transformation, democratization, and resis-tance in post-Cold War Russia.

A key element of Russian conversations before 1991 is whatRies refers to as the "discursive art of suffering." Suffering, theability to document one's losses either as an individual or as amember of a group, is valued by Russians. Ries's informants ex-press their suffering through "litanies." Emphasis in litanies isoften placed on the suffering of women and the elderly. One ofthe images that epitomizes this theme of suffering \s a. babushka(grandmother) braving the cold and the crowds to stand in linefor nine hours to buy a sack of sugar. The message in this exam-ple is not limited to the experience of an individual babushka;rather it is the symbolic nature of the heroic sacrifices of timeand health that babushkas make forthe survival of their families.

The form and tone of litanies parallel the form and tone of reli-gious speech and folklore in Russia, according to Ries. The shiftfrom simple conversation into litany is quite obvious because ofthe dramatic shift in tone and style. Litanizing, like religious la-ments, is characterized by a pleading tone, rhetorical questions,symbolic word combinations (presented in a poetic manner),and high drama. Often litanies begin with a personal tale andshift to a collective lament about the general difficulties andmiseries of Russian life. A common ending to many litanies is"Only in Russia could it be so."

Litanies are both a way of producing and resisting power rela-tions. Ries shows that Russians, through discussion of their"hopeless" and "absurd" situations, actually reinforce the in-equalities in the power structure. Often litanies attribute to lead-ers a symbolic power that did not actually exist At me sametime, Ries refers to litanies as acts of everyday resistance. By en-gaging in critical discussions of their position and by invoking

840 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST • VOL. 100, No. 3 • SEPTEMBER 1998

this model of the religious lament, Russians are able to exert asense of control even while being dominated by a more powerfulgroup. The value of suffering is important in the face of dramaticupheavals when "suffering engendered distinction, sacrificecreated status, and loss produced gain"' (p. 83). Litanies thus be-come competitive and politicized. In this section I would haveliked to hear a more concise discussion of what she means by re-sistance and how precisely litanies accomplish this end.

The clearest message to be taken away from this book is thatRussians themselves construct their "Russianness" throughtheir speech patterns. As a Siberianist, it is clear to me that thediscourses that Ries observed in Moscow take on a differentcharacter in the countryside. However, the templates for litaniesand laments that she outlines do exist, even though the contentvaries. Ries's book forces us to look at the narratives providedby informants in a different light. That is, how do informantsconstruct for us our knowledge of what makes them who they are?

At numerous points in the book Ries discusses her methodol-ogy. The first major hurdle in her fieldwork was the fall of theBerlin Wall, which represented the end of the Cold War. Sinceher research design rested on the existence of the Cold War, shewas forced into the uncomfortable position of changing her re-search questions after arriving in the field. Talking about the fallof the Berlin Wall led to discussions about the dramatic changesin her informants' lives, which in rum led to the analysis we arepresented. But relatively few of the discussions that she had withinformants were recorded. In fact, she often did not take notesduring the conversation out of a fear that it would halt the flow ofspeech. Although she would take notes immediately afterward,one must question the accuracy of some of the texts that shequotes. Her interactions were primarily with women, but she isvery clear about this and does include some analysis of genderdifferences in litanies that included those interviews she wasable to carry out with men.

Ries's contribution to the anthropology of Russia is to showthe value of using everyday speech to understand identity. Herintent is to provide an analysis of the changing identity of Mus-covites under perestroika. Although the situation is quite variedas one moves further away from Moscow, Ries's innovative ap-proach and sensitive analysis makes this book essential for anyscholar engaged in research in post-Soviet Russia. Daily rene-gotiations of self and group identity are fundamental to the so-cial and political transitions in the states that have emerged outof the ruins of the Soviet Union. Russian Talk is a very timelybook for any scholar of the former Soviet Union and will also bevery useful for scholars interested in studying identity forma-tion and social change. •>

Guia Etnografica de la Alta Amazonia, vol. 1 (Mai Huna,Yagua, Ticuna). Fernando Santos and Frederica Barclay, eds.Quito: Facultad Latinamericana de Ciencias Sociales(FLACSO) and Instituto Frances de Estudios Andinos (IFEA),1994.456 pp.

MICHAEL F. BROWN

Williams College

Given the declining fortunes of cultural anthropology's em-pirical and comparative traditions, it is easy to forget that basicknowledge of minority cultures continues to be a scarce com-

modity in many parts of the world. Indigenous communities arefar more easily swept off the political map if their size, location,and distinctive features remain unknown to policymakers andthe general public. Ethnographic information still matters, inother words, especially when offered in a form that is readilyavailable to interested readers.

The Guia Etnografica de la Alta Amazonia is an ambitious at-tempt to bring together in a single series compact studies of thewestern Amazon's native societies. Organized by region andethnolinguistic affinity, the Guia will comprise more than adozen volumes of ethnography—each containing two or threeconcise monographic works—as well as a pair of concludingvolumes that explore the region's prehistory and broad culturalfeatures from a comparative perspective. The contributors rep-resent a range of interests and theoretical traditions, but theyshare a common commitment to long-term, politically engagedfield research among Amazonia's native peoples.

As the series editors, Fernando Santos and Frederica Barclay,explain in aprologue, the obviousprecursorof the Guia is JulianSteward's Handbook of South American Indians, published be-tween 1946 and 1959 by the Bureau of American Ethnology.Unlike the Handbook, parts of which are based on the sketchiestof information, the Guia can draw on detailed ethnographic andhistorical knowledge acquired over the past four decades. TheHandbook's focus on cultural evolution and its neglect of post-contact social processes have been superseded in the Guia by anemphasis on historical change and ethnogenesis. Indeed, theeditors insist that one of the principal goals of the series is todocument the efforts of Amazonian peoples to "assure them-selves of space as citizens with full rights within their respectivecountries and in this way guarantee their development as socie-ties with their own characteristics" (p. xiii, my translation).

This inaugural volume gets the series off to a strong start byoffering ethnographies of three groups located in northeasternPeru and adjacent areas of Colombia and Brazil: Irene Bellier'sstudy of the Mai Huna (often referred to as the Orejones orCoto), apoorly understoodTukanoan people numbering around300; Jean-Pierre Chaumeil 's examination of the Yagua, a groupof approximately 4,000; and Jean-Pierre Goulard's study of theTicuna, who at 30,000 constitute one of the largest ethnolinguis-tic groups in contemporary Amazonia. The region in questionhas been shaped by major historical changes ranging from thearrival of prehistoric Tupi populations to the radical disloca-tions brought about by Franciscan and Jesuit missionary activityand, in the nineteenth century, by the Rubber Boom. Despite di-vergent linguistic origins, the Yagua, Mai Huna, and Ticunademonstrate fascinating similarities with respect to kinship (no-tably, patrilineal clans and a system of dual organization), pat-terns of warfare, and long-range trade relations, all of which areexplored by Santos and Barclay in a helpful introductory essay.

Space limitations prevent me from reviewing each of themonographs at length. Suffice it to say that they are without ex-ception comprehensive, nuanced, historically informed, andclearly written. To further the comparative goals of the series,the editors have imposed a common format, but this constraintdoes not prevent the authors from putting a personal stamp ontheir work. Thus Bellier, whose prior publications have empha-sized the study of gender, offers an illuminating view of rela-tions between the sexes in her ethnography of the Mai Huna.Chaumeil, well known for his outstanding studies of Amazonian